


Whispers

by Neva_Borne



Category: Tangled (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dark, F/M, Mental Health Issues, Odd, Schizophrenia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 12:59:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18739537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neva_Borne/pseuds/Neva_Borne
Summary: A short, fractured fairy tale following the mentally ill Rapunzel and criminal Flynn in a modern universe.





	Whispers

**Author's Note:**

> This was written as a class project, and I am debating whether or not to expand the story to make it longer.

     Whispers. Constant, threatening whispers. That’s all Rapunzel could hear as she lay in bed, staring at the ceiling through the darkness. That’s all she had been hearing for weeks. She couldn’t sleep. She wanted to, oh how she wanted to, but the whispers kept her awake.  _ They’re going to find you. They know where you are. You can’t hide from them.  _ Closing her eyes tightly, she willed the voices to go away, to leave her alone, to let her sleep. They did sometimes, and for a while, sometimes months, she’d be safe, but they’d always come back.  _ They  _ would always find her again. 

     Eventually the voices subsided, fading away into the distance with promises of their return hanging bitter in the air. Too stressed to sleep, Rapunzel slid out of bed and padded barefoot across the old oak floorboards to the window, staring out at the predawn landscape. It was the same familiar sight she’d seen every day for nearly twenty years, and she found comfort in it. She sat by the window as the sun rose, watching the golden light touch every leaf, every drop of dew, and cast a bright yellow sheen on the world. 

     It wasn’t long before Mother brought up her breakfast and began brushing her hair, singing a gentle song to herself as she did so. Rapunzel remained staring out the window, and it took Mother shaking her shoulder repeatedly for her to realize that she had been asked a question.

     “Yes, Mother?”

     “I said,” Mother sighed, transitioning into braiding her hair, “I’m going into town today, did you want anything?”

     Rapunzel shook her head no and let her gaze fall upon a bird flittering outside the window. The faint whispering had returned, breathing words into her ears and making the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.  _ Mother will be gone. They will find you. They are coming to hurt you.  _ Part of her considered that maybe she would be safer with Mother, but then she realized that if people saw her, she could be found. They would tell  _ them _ where she was, and then Mother might be in danger too. 

     When Mother finished braiding her hair, she left to get ready to go into town, and Rapunzel made her way to her bathroom to splash cool water on her face. Her reflection stared back at her in the mirror. Tired blue eyes, pale skin. The stress of hiding from  _ them _ always made her feel sickly. Her Mother would comment on how she wasn’t eating, or sometimes even bathing, but she was just too exhausted from hiding to be able to do those things. If she let her guard down, they would find her and that would be the end.

     Before Mother left, she came up to check on Rapunzel one last time.

     “Are you sure you don’t want anything, flower?” 

     “Yes, Mother.”

     “Okay,” she said, softly kissing the top of Rapunzel’s head. “I’ll be back tomorrow. Don’t get into any trouble.”

     Rapunzel nodded and smiled at her Mother as she left her room and headed down the stairs. No one was trying to hurt Mother. She would be safer without her.

     Rapunzel spent the day cleaning. Or at least she tried to. It was difficult for her to focus on her goal and she repeatedly found herself simply sitting on her bed doing nothing. The voices returned, louder than ever. Rapunzel pulled her legs to her chest and covered her ears, rocking back and forth, mumbling responses to the whispers and asking them to go away. They ignored her, only growing louder and stronger, more threatening, more insistent that  _ they _ were close, that  _ they  _ were going to hurt her. The light faded from the sky and dark clouds rolled in, promising rain.

     Suddenly there was a horrendous crash from downstairs and Rapunzel snapped her head up. The voices stopped for a second, then coiled around her like a snake and whispered,  _ they’re here.  _ Wide-eyed, Rapunzel grabbed the heaviest, most weaponizable object she could find (which happened to be a heavy broom) and crept towards the door of her bedroom. Damn it if she was going to let them take her without a fight. 

     The house was old, and the oak floorboards creaked in places. Every time Rapunzel accidentally placed her foot on one of these places she stopped and held her breath, listening for more sounds from below. But every time, the only noises she heard were the voices that were almost screaming at her and laughing that they were here, that they would soon have her in their grasp. Heart pounding, body shaking from the adrenaline coursing through her veins, Rapunzel made her way down the stairs and crept into the doorway of the kitchen. Tiny pieces of shattered glass were scattered across the floor and in the sink. The smell of rain blew in on a cold wind from the broken window, sending shivers down Rapunzel’s spine. Some of the cabinets had been opened and various food items strewn across the counters, some bags of nuts and granola split open and spewing their contents onto the floor. Most of the food was missing from the cabinets, clearly having been taken by whoever had broken in.

_      Behind you. _ The voice was clear and threatening, echoing inside her head and sending a jolt of fear through her body. She whipped around, whirling the broom through the air and making solid contact with a hard, heavy  _ something _ . There was an audible cry of pain as whoever was there stumbled into the wall, clutching its head.

     “Ow! What the fuck!” 

     Rapunzel raised the broom in preparation for another strike, her breathing rapid and shallow, her eyes wide. Her whole body was shaking as she stared at this person through the dim light of the hallway. “Who are you? What do you want from me?” She yelled, bracing herself to whack the broom again.

     “Jesus, lady, calm down! I’m not here to hurt you!” The man - she could see and hear now that it was a man - straightened up a bit and brought his hand away from his head, peering at his palm as if looking for evidence of injury, then pressed it to his head again. “Ow. Fuck, you hit hard!”

     Rapunzel just glared at him. “Why are you here? What do you want?” 

     “I didn’t know anyone lived here, I swear. I was just looking for food and a place to hide.”

     “Hide?” Rapunzel narrowed her eyes. “What are you hiding from? What’s your name? Why are you hiding?”

     “Look, lady, I’m really sorry I broke in but I don’t want to tell you my whole life story right now.” 

_      He’s one of them. He’s here to hurt you.  _ The voices cackled, and she almost thought she could see dark figures dancing at the edges of her vision. “Tell me who you’re hiding from!” Rapunzel raised the broom a few inches higher and the man flinched back.

     “Fine! Okay! Jesus. I’m Flynn Rider and I’m hiding from…” His eyes flicked up and behind Rapunzel to the window. “Uh… From them, actually.” He pointed.

     Rapunzel turned her head to see several men with massive black dogs approaching the house. Her heart skipped a beat and the voices inside her head were screaming at her.

     “Apparently I’m bad at hiding.”

     “They’ve found me,” Rapunzel whispered, her voice barely audible as her entire body felt frozen with dread. The voices had been right all along.  _ They _ had finally found her.

     Flynn frowned at her, confused. “Wait, they’re after you too?”

     She didn’t answer. She needed to make a decision. The voices were swirling around and screaming confusing threats. They had told her that Flynn was one of  _ them _ but if he was hiding from  _ them _ then how could that be? She needed to choose: take a chance and trust Flynn, or trust the voices and accept that she was trapped.

     Simultaneously dropping the broom and grabbing Flynn’s hand, she took off down the hallway towards the back of the house. Her vision flashed with images of men with dogs as she passed windows, but she couldn’t tell if she was imagining them or not. Flynn, taken by surprise, did not resist as she dragged him along with her. The house was probably surrounded, but Rapunzel remembered her mother telling her about the tunnel that came out by the river. The basement of the house was well hidden on its own, and the tunnel entrance even more so. 

     As she fiddled with the door to the basement, she heard a loud knocking on the front door of the house followed by a man shouting Flynn’s name. A bit of panic shot through her and her fingers slipped temporarily, but she quickly regained control over the lock and pushed the door open, grabbing Flynn and shoving him inside before following him and closing the door as tightly as she could. The pounding on the door sounded much more distant now through the insulated walls and heavy door. 

     Both of them remained quiet as they crept down the stairs and into the pitch black basement. Even the voices seemed to know to be quiet. Rapunzel felt her way around the edge of the room until her fingers caught on the edge of a stone. She pushed it, and the wall to her left slid away, revealing a somehow even more pitch black tunnel. 

     “Flynn, this way,” she whispered, even her quietest voice sounding loud and frightening in the empty darkness. She heard him shuffling towards her and then through into the tunnel. As they both stepped inside, the wall behind them slid shut once more. 

 

     They walked in silence for a while, cautiously feeling out every step, their hands brushing against the tunnel wall. It was too dark to see anything, and Rapunzel had no idea how long the tunnel was or exactly where they would end up, but anything was better than dealing with  _ them _ .

     “So uh…” Flynn finally broke the silence with a soft whisper. “How come they’re after you, too?”

     Rapunzel glanced at where she assumed Flynn was, debating whether or not to answer. Of course, she had already decided to trust him when she brought him with her in her escape, so she figured what would it hurt if she told him.

     “I have magic hair.”

     Her words were met with several seconds of confused and slightly stunned silence. “Oh. Right. Naturally. Uh… what exactly does your magic hair do?”

     Rapunzel shrugged, squinting up ahead as she thought she could detect the faint outline of a door. Dim light was seeping into the tunnel from the cracks around the frame, allowing her to see just barely in the darkness. “It makes people young if they sing a certain song.” She stated matter-of-factly.

     “Ah, right. Of course. That’s a thing that hair can do.” Flynn nodded resolutely.

     They had reached the door, and Rapunzel began to feel around for the knob. “Look,” she said, brushing a few wisps of hair out of her face, “if you don’t believe me, that’s fine. But I have magic hair and that’s why they’re after me. Mother always said I’d be safer at home than out here.” She found the knob, twisted, and pushed.

     A gust of wind blasted cold rain into their faces as the door opened. Rapunzel instinctively wrapped her arms around herself and shivered, stepping out onto the muddy ground. The river was to her right, rushing violently in celebration of the rain. 

     “We need to find shelter,” Flynn muttered, looking down at the thin, barely-dressed girl beside him. He hadn’t realized before that all she was wearing was a thin purple shirt and jeans. After a slight moment of hesitation, he took off his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders. 

     Rapunzel looked up at Flynn, grasping his coat and wrapping it tightly around herself. This was the first time she’d gotten a good look at him. His brown hair was soaked and flopped down into his face, and his light brown eyes were watching her with something she could only assume was curiosity. “Do you know of a place we can wait out the storm?” She asked, shivering again.

     “Possibly.” He said, rubbing his chin. “It’s a decent walk, though.”

     After an hour or so of walking in slightly uncomfortable and miserable silence, the inviting sight of a brightly lit cabin appeared before them. Both of them sped up, eager to get inside out of the cold rain. Flynn pounded on the door incessantly until it opened to reveal a slightly older gentleman dressed in a green checkered shirt, his brown hair just starting to grey around the edges. 

     He blinked up at them, confused. “Flynn? What are you doing here?”

     Flynn gestured towards Rapunzel. “We uh… we need a place to stay until the rain stops.” 

     The man looked down at Rapunzel who smiled slightly as she shivered on the porch, clutching Flynn’s coat around her shoulders as tightly as she could, then looked back up to Flynn with narrowed eyes. “Fine. You two can come in.” He stepped aside to let them walk past him into the cabin, but he never took his eyes off Flynn. 

     There was a fire crackling merrily in the fireplace, and Rapunzel instantly made her way towards it, dropping the soaked coat to the ground and extending her hands to the flames to warm them. 

     “Oh, you poor dear, you’re soaked through!” A warm, motherly voice came from beside her. Rapunzel looked up and into the face of a woman who looked about the same age as the man, but with lighter brown hair that wasn’t quite greying yet and light brown eyes. “Come with me, dear. We’ll get you some dry clothes and then you can come sit by the fire and warm up properly. I’m Ellie, by the way.”

     Rapunzel followed the woman to a room set in the corner of the cabin where she watched as she pulled out a few outfits from the wardrobe. “Here, dear. Take your pick of these.”

     Rapunzel approached the bed where the outfits were laying and scanned them over, deciding on the one that looked the warmest and most cozy. As she changed, Ellie went into the bathroom, returning with a very fuzzy towel. Rapunzel took it and dried her face and dabbed at her hair. Her braid felt very heavy and wet down her back, so she pulled it around to start untangling the hair from the braid so it could dry. 

     “You have beautiful hair,” Ellie said, gathering up all of Rapunzel’s wet clothes. Rapunzel looked at her and narrowed her eyes slightly.

     The voices started whispering again.  _ She’s one of them. She’s going to turn you in. You can’t trust her.  _ She shook her head, trying to dispel the unwanted thoughts the voices were giving her. “Thank you,” she forced out, pulling her fingers through the final twist in her braid and starting to vigorously towel her hair dry.

     “So how do you know Flynn?”

     Rapunzel shrugged. “I don’t, really. He um… ran into me as I was… uh…” 

     “No need to lie to me, dear. I know what Flynn does for a living.” Ellie looked at Rapunzel with such intensity that Rapunzel felt as though she would see through even the most elaborate of lies.

     She broke eye contact and crossed her arms.“He broke into my house and there were people with dogs chasing him and so we had to run.”

     “Why didn’t you just let them catch him, if he broke into your house?”

     Rapunzel hesitated. How much did she want this strange woman to know about her? 

     “Dear,” Ellie said, “I know Flynn. He used to be a good boy, but a few years back he just… changed. Suddenly started getting into all kinds of trouble. Eventually ran away. I know how he uses people. And I can see that you’re better than that. You deserve more than him.”

     Rapunzel looked up and blinked at Ellie. “Wait, no. We aren’t… we aren’t  _ together _ or anything. I literally just met him a couple hours ago.”

     “Yet you ran away from the police with him instead of letting him get caught?”

     Rapunzel frowned, then made a big show of wrapping her arms around herself and shivering violently. Police? Those weren’t police. They were  _ them _ . They would hurt her. Ellie, seeing her shivering, took the wet towel from her and ushered her back into the main living room of the cabin and sat her down beside the fire. Flynn and the older man were nowhere to be seen.

     “I’ll get you some hot chocolate, how’s that, dear?” Ellie said, already bustling off to where Rapunzel assumed was the kitchen.

     After getting settled down in a blanket with hot chocolate and the crackling fire, Rapunzel felt much better. She could smell the delicious odors of food wafting in from the kitchen, where Ellie had again disappeared. A few minutes later, Flynn appeared and sat down beside her, extending his hands to the flames and wiggling his fingers. 

     “So, I never did catch your name as we were running from the police.” He said, looking sideways at her.

     “Rapunzel.” There was that word police again. But they couldn’t have been police. The voices had told her they were there to hurt her.

     He blinked. “Okay.” He paused for a moment, as though considering his next words. “So… Why did you really run from the police? You don’t seem like the type to have done something wrong.”

     Rapunzel frowned and looked at him. “I told you. I have magic hair.  _ They _ want it and they’ll do anything to get it.”

     “Oh… I uh… I kind of thought you were joking about the hair.” Flynn mumbled.

     She glared at him but didn’t say anything. The voices were growing louder, more insistent that he was one of  _ them _ , trying to gain her trust, trying to hurt her. She closed her eyes tightly and covered her ears, rocking gently back and forth. But the voices were inside her head and they weren’t about to let go of her.

 

***

 

     It rained for three days. Flynn and Rapunzel were stuck at the cabin for the entirety of those three days, and Rapunzel learned that Ellie and the man, Vernon, were Flynn’s parents. Every time the voices became too loud or she felt like she needed to run or fight, she retreated to her bedroom to wait out the voices. As the days passed, it became harder and took longer to make the voices go away, and even when they were quiet, Rapunzel felt on edge and uneasy. Sometimes she would stare at the wall and do nothing for hours at a time, unaware of the goings-on around her. On these occasions, Flynn would try to get her attention, mostly unsuccessfully, but eventually Rapunzel would get up and go about her day as usual again.

     When the rain finally stopped, Flynn and Vernon got into a heated argument. Yelling triggered the voices and Rapunzel retreated to her room to wait them out as usual. In addition to the normal voices, she also had a gnawing anxiety in her stomach. Her mother had probably returned to the house to find it empty and broken into, with her missing and no hint as to where she was. She was probably worried sick about her. What would she say when Rapunzel returned?

     There was a knock at the door and the voices retreated slightly. “Rapunzel?” Flynn called through the door. “I’m going to take you back home now, okay?” 

     Rapunzel stood and left her room, glancing up at Flynn as she walked past him. In the three days they’d been trapped together, they’d spent a lot of time together. Whenever Flynn wasn’t arguing with his father, that was. Despite the fact that he’d broken into her house, and despite the fact that his parents clearly disapproved of him, Rapunzel had grown fond of him. He often cracked jokes and he checked on her whenever she started being overwhelmed by the voices. He made sure she ate at every meal and that she got plenty of rest. She noticed that he smiled a lot when he was with her, and he had a nice smile. His parents never made him smile. And anyway, if  _ they _ were after him, too, then he couldn’t be so bad. He must have something that they wanted. Not magic hair, of course. But something. So, as she walked past him, she reached out for his hand and squeezed it. She was going to miss him when she returned home. 

     When Rapunzel stepped outside of the cabin, there was a shiny black car parked in the driveway. Instant dread filled her. The voices coiled and swirled around inside her head, laughing at her, screaming at her, yelling that this was it. This was how  _ they _ would trap her. She turned to Flynn, eyes wide, fear and betrayal welling inside her. “You turned me in!” She shouted, panic filling her body. Before Flynn could react, she turned and sprinted away from him across the grass, her shoes squelching in the mud. She could hear him yelling after her, hear his feet thudding on the ground as he chased her. 

     She could hear dogs barking, more people yelling. More people chasing her. Branches whipped her face as she charged into the trees, sending blood trickling down her cheeks. She could see people at the edges of her vision. People in blue and black uniforms with big black dogs chasing after her. Tears streamed from her eyes as she ran. This was it, this was the end. They were chasing her and they would catch her and they would hurt her and take her magic hair. 

     “Rapunzel! Stop!” The voice was Flynn’s. Flynn the traitor. Flynn who had acted like a friend even though he’d been one of  _ them _ all along. 

     She didn’t listen. Didn’t even consider it. And then suddenly there was no more ground beneath her feet and she was falling, tumbling downwards through the air. The roar of the river drowned out all the voices as she plunged down… down… down into the cold darkness. And suddenly she felt very light, and her head was empty of voices. For the first time in a long time, she felt utterly at peace, and she let herself drift off to sleep.

 

     Flynn could barely breathe as he reached the cliff’s edge. Panic and dread filled his entire body as he looked over. There was no sign of her. The rushing river drowned out all other noise except for his panicked thoughts. Horrified, defeated, and utterly alone, he sank to his knees by the edge and just stared down at the water. His whole body was numb as the image of Rapunzel disappearing over the edge replayed over and over and over in his mind. He had no idea what had caused her to run away from him. Her odd mumblings, her claim to have magic hair and that someone was trying to steal it from her… none of it made any sense. Her running away made no sense. And now, here he was, staring down at the river that had taken her away from the world in an instant. Cold, ruthless, selfish, it rushed ever onwards. 

     Flynn let out an anguished scream, trying to release all of the pain and despair he felt and lay down in the mud, wrapping his arms around his knees and curling into a ball as the tears began to stream down his face.  _ This is all your fault _ , a bodiless voice whispered.  _ You killed her. _


End file.
